Word: motel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...subject of divorce: "Alex had turned to me during one of those postcard breaks on MacNeil-Lehrer and said she thought we'd be better off if we just forgot the marriage." As the legal wrangling winds down, Martin flies off for no apparent reason to stay at the motel on Florida's Gulf Coast managed by his sister-in-law Dominica. Before long, the two of them are in bed together, with the TV again bearing witness: "About nine we started to make love but then quit in the middle of things and went for a walk...
Given this pervasive electronic wallpaper, Martin naturally describes characters in terms ready made for a passive audience. The lawyer he chooses to represent him in the divorce is "a guy who looked like Wayne Newton." An oddly menacing figure who turns up at Dominica's motel "looked like Dustin Hoffman, for some reason." Similarly, Martin reports on natural scenery most confidently when he can compare it to name-brand products. Walking along the beach, he notes that "the Gulf shined like mylar." Out for a drive, he remarks, "The clouds were like spills of dark Cool Whip going in slow...
...façades? Many unconnected things. Martin senses that his behavior with the two sisters is a mite unusual: "I tried to feel peculiar about being married to one and sleeping with the other, but it didn't work." Then his soon to be ex-wife shows up at the motel. So does Dominica's former husband Mel, who may be the one who has spread glass on her beachfront and menaced her in other ominous and anonymous ways. On the other hand, Mel may be innocent. His brother Minnie arrives, bearing a big statue of a horse. Martin, Alex, Dominica...
Thirty-seven years ago this month, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. In the wake of King’s brutal murder, a man with the same name and same face has been elevated to a level of reverence that no other black person in American history has achieved. This other King’s birthday is a holiday, his name graces boulevards, and a honorary monument is being erected in Washington, D.C. In the meantime, the real, infinitely more complex King sits idly by, buried in the stagnant dust...
...staff, and a golf course stands on former grazing land. Such is the world of 21st century castles. From Scotland to southern England, castles have always been among Britain 's most popular tourist attractions. They're a top lure in Ireland as well. But, travelers, bored with chain motels and overpriced bed-and-breakfasts, are finding the idea of sleeping in a historical monument attractive indeed. "People are tired of country hotels. They want a bit more personality," says Roger Masterson, proprietor of accommodation agency Celtic Castles. Eager to oblige them, castle owners throughout Britain and Ireland have been damp...